The Truth About The Attempts To Assassinate Queen Elizabeth

As a monarch and one of the most famous people on earth, Queen Elizabeth has survived her fair share of assassination attempts. Her nearly 70 years of rule are marked by life-or-death situations, from attempted shootings in public to quiet, deadly sabotages, via Biography. Fortunately, the Queen remained calm and collected through them all, a testament to her ability to withstand any crisis.

For one assassination attempt, the Queen was unaware of what was happening. In 1970, someone tried to derail the monarch's train in Australia by placing a log on the tracks. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were sleeping on the train while traveling from Sydney to New South Wales town of Orange, when conductor Albert Rowley spotted a large log on the tracks, per Telegraph. Rowley braked just in time. Even though the train still collided with the log, it came to a full stop and no one was harmed. The train could have left the tracks and flown into the embankment had it collided with the log at full speed. Additionally, the Queen and the Duke had no idea that anything unusual had occurred. Rowley quietly received an Imperial Service Medal in 1974, and news about the incident wasn't released until 2009, according to Telegraph.

Queen Elizabeth survived two assassination attempts and a dangerous encounter in 1981 and 1982, per Biography. In June 1981, the monarch was riding a horse in the annual Trooping the Color festival, along with thousands of parading soldiers, musicians, and other horse riders. Suddenly, a 17-year-old whipped out a pistol and pointed it directly at her and fired six blank cartridges, via People. He missed entirely and police wrestled him to the ground. Remarkably, the Queen remained calm and kept control over her horse before riding on, as though nothing had happened.

Just four months later in October, another teenager attempted to shoot Queen Elizabeth from a fifth-floor window in New Zealand, during a visit by the Queen and Prince Philip, according to The New York Times. Fortunately, the teen missed. The police at the time allegedly told the Royals that the sound was from a sign falling over, and later said it was firecrackers, because they were worried that the Queen and the Duke would never return, via Biography.

In 1982, a man named Michael Fagan broke into Queen Elizabeth's bedroom, per Town and Country. Fagan told The Sun that he meant no harm, and that the Queen handled the incident with grace. After asking Fagan what he was doing there, she left the room to get help. Fagan was arrested without further incident.